Brazil's President Bolsonaro could destroy the Amazon, scientists say

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's right-wing presidential candidate, led the elections in Brazil on Sunday and won the election.

Much of the reason Bolsonaro won is that Brazilians are "exhausted by corruption, rising violence, an economy that has just not improved," and Bolsonaro, according to Peter, has made many promises Resolving Evil Prengmaan, The Associated Press's Brazilian News Director

Bolsonaro – known as the "Trump of the Tropics" and known for making anti-gay, misogynist, violent and racist comments also on the environmental policy of the country.

Scientists around the world are worried, because as Brazilian President, Bolsonaro will control almost two thirds of the Amazon, the largest tropical rainforest in the world. The president-elect argues that the country has too many ecologically protected areas that hinder its development.

Bolsonaro said he is considering opening a highway through the Amazon while banning environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, The Guardian reports.

Jair Bolsonaro is Brazil's new president. REUTERS / Ricardo Moraes

Bolsonaro plans to demolish the largest tropical rainforest in the world, and critics fear to "institutionalize genocide" in the Amazon

Bolsonaro Recently, the reporters pledged that Brazil would remain in the Paris Agreement, the groundbreaking global climate agreement he was critical of in the past. But it is unclear how he successfully maintained Brazil's end to this agreement and at the same time cut large parts of the Amazon, which keeps the world cool. Bolsonaro also wants to eliminate the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, Science Magazine reported.

"His ruthless plans to industrialize the Amazon in line with Brazilian and international agribusiness and mining sectors will bring immense destruction to the planet's largest rainforest and communities, calling it home and catastrophic to the global climate," said the director of the Amazon Watch program, Christian Poirier, in a statement after hearing the news about President Bolsonaro.

Poirier is not the only one who worries.

"I think we are on our way to a very dark time in Brazil's history," said Paulo Artaxo, a climate change researcher at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, to Science Magazine. "There is no point in glossing over it – Bolsonaro is the worst thing that can happen to the environment."

On June 26, 2017, near Itapua do Oeste, Brazil, there is a runoff in a tin mine in a deforested part of the Amazon rainforest Mario Tama / Getty Images

[19659002] Genevieve Guenther, the EndClimateSilence. Org founded on Twitter said Bolsonaro's election "Guaranteed Brazil Will not Do Anything to Curb Pollution Emissions and Countless Hectares of the Amazon Rainforest is Destroyed" While Meteorologist Argued Eric Holthaus that the system of forest privatization that the new president intends is essentially "planetary suicide."

Other scientists, such as volcanologist Jess Phoenix who lost a primary democratic race in the summer in Southern California, agreed with this.

Some indigenous people who live in the forest fear for their own safety, as more loggers and miners could go to their homes under Bolsonaro.

"We are very scared, I'm scared for my own life," said Dinaman Tuxa, the national coordinator of the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples Association, in an interview in Brazil. "He will institutionalize genocide."

Tropical plant expert Christopher Dick of the University of Michigan said on Twitter that "if [Bolsonaro] his rhetoric continues, genocide, torture of dissidents and climate-changing destruction of the Amazon rainforest are to be expected Nightmare scenario I hope I'm wrong. "

The Amazon literally breathes life into the planet

Plants in the rainforest suck carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, use the carbon to grow, and put oxygen back on into the air. For this reason, the colossal, 2.1 million square miles wide Amazon is often referred to as the "lung of the planet". The forest helps our spinning ball inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen by critically controlling man-made climate change. Scientists estimate that the Amazon is home to one-sixth of the world's carbon stored in vegetation.

Environmental experts argue that this carbon-donating system is one of the best solutions for climate change.

"We need to take carbon dioxide substantially from the atmosphere to prevent a very dangerous increase in temperature, and major floods, heavy storms and heat waves," said Doug Boucher, a science consultant to the Union of Concerned Scientists, Grist said. "The best way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is to conserve and rebuild forests."

Although the Amazon is the most diverse forest on the planet, scientists say that less than 0.5% of the Amazon's thriving plant species have been studied for their medical potential, according to the WWF. A devastating new report released by the NGO on Tuesday said that nearly 20% of the Amazon has "disappeared in just 50 years".

As Brazil seeks to keep pace with demand for more beef and soybean production, parts of the Amazon that are the size of entire countries have been cleared. In a particularly intensive pruning period from 1991-2000, an area the size of Spain was cut down. This rapid deforestation has slowed down in recent years, although the trend in livestock and agriculture tree trade will continue.

Although the Amazon soil is not good for agriculture, scientists estimate that the size of Delaware across the Amazon in 2017 will be a number they expect under Bolsonaro. Today every year more than 1,930 square kilometers of forest are cleared.